


Under My Skin

by sapphire_child



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Beauty and the Beast Elements, Community: then_theres_us, Disney References, F/M, Gen, Inspired by Disney, Nine gets a splinter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-09
Updated: 2010-02-09
Packaged: 2019-01-22 22:14:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12491940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphire_child/pseuds/sapphire_child
Summary: “You got a cat o’ nine tails and a burning poker in there too?” the Doctor said sourly.





	Under My Skin

**Author's Note:**

> Written for challenge 24 - 28. Nine/Rose “Beauty and the Beast”

“Doctor,” Rose said conversationally, dropping onto the jump seat. “What you doing?”

The Doctor paused in his careful palpation of the skin on his palm to glance up at her from where he was leant up against the console before returning to his project with a renewed sense of purpose.

“Rose Tyler, I am trying to find the right angle and amount of pressure that’ll aid in the expulsion of a certain shard of organic matter from the epithelial tissue on my palm.”

Rose was silent and the Doctor was busily feeling quite pleased with himself until he realised that she obviously had no clue what he had just said. With a sigh he held out his palm to her to indicate what ailed him.

“Oh god. _Don’t_ tell me you’re still tryin’ to get that splinter out of your hand!” Rose slid off the jump seat and came over to inspect it. “Doctor it’s been _days_ since we got caught up in that exploding forest!”

“Yeah and normally my body would’ve expelled this little bugger by now,” he grumbled, digging sharply at it with his thumbnail and hissing in pain when the tiny shard refused to budge. “Only other thing I can do is poke it out with something sharp or go into a healing trance and hope my body gets the idea that it’s supposed to push it out.”

“Why don’t you let me…” Rose, having reached his side put a hand out for his but the Doctor snatched it back with a hearty glare.

“Don’t touch it!” He snapped and at her incredulous look defended himself in a voice that was most definitely not whiney in any way. “Don’t look at me like that. It hurts!”

“Oh don’t be such a baby.” Rose said impatiently. “Just let me take a look at it…”

She lunged at him, he ducked, and they circled each other for several moments, the Doctor keeping his hand well out of her reach and Rose huffing and puffing with irritation. Finally she stumped her hands on her hips and exploded at him in a way that would’ve made her mother proud. “Well if you’d rather just leave it in there to turn septic…”

“I can get it out!” he insisted.

“After three days of tryin’?” Rose said disbelievingly.

They glared at each other for a moment and then Rose went stomping off towards the hallway. For a moment the Doctor thought he might’ve won and that she was storming off to sulk but when she reached the door Rose stopped and turned back, fixing him with a glare that could’ve stripped paint.

“Don’t go anywhere.” She told him sternly, jabbing a finger at him to accent her point. “I’ll be back in five minutes.”

Grumbling, the Doctor took possession of the jump seat and continued to dig insolently at the splinter with a fingernail. For such a tiny piece of wood it really was quite painful and more than that, it was extremely irritating. Time Lord’s should not get splinters – and when they did get them they should be able to expel it from their bodies without all the fuss and bother. It was embarrassing.

Rose returned after three minutes and forty nine seconds, much sooner than either of them had anticipated, but just as he was about to point this out to her when he saw the weapons of torture she had gathered up and the Doctor seriously began to consider crawling underneath the grating to get away from her.

“What are _those_?” he demanded.

“Tweezers,” Rose deposited the small pile of metal next to him and began to catalogue them for him as she lined them up neatly. “Narrow tip and slant edge, safety pin, dress making pin, pair of nail scissors...”

“You got a cat o’ nine tails and a burning poker in there too?” the Doctor said sourly. “What d’you need two pairs of tweezers for anyway?”

“Think my eyebrows stay this shape naturally?” Rose scoffed as she clambered up next to him and held her hand out, palm up. She waited there for a moment with an insolently confident air and finally, grumbling heartily, the Doctor slapped his larger hand into hers and watched unhappily as she began to inspect the damage.

“I think you’ve pushed it in deeper,” she murmured, gaze still fixed on his hand as she reached for the narrow tip tweezers. “If I can just…”

Carefully, she palpated the flesh of his palm and then navigated the tweezers until the very tips were resting just millimetres away from the splinter. The Doctor watched in silent dread as she poked her tongue out in concentration and squinted a little. Nervously, he shifted slightly on the jump seat and then yowled as the movement prompted Rose to accidentally prod the tender skin just a little too hard. Instantly he snatched his hand back.

“That hurt!” he bellowed, cradling it against his chest.

“Well if you just held still,” Rose countered angrily. “Then maybe it wouldn’t hurt so bad!” she jabbed at his leather clad shoulder with the tweezers to accentuate her point and then held her hand out again demandingly.

Grumbling, the Doctor grudgingly gave her his hand back. “This is your fault anyway,” he muttered, wincing as she tried to squeeze the splinter out. “If I hadn’t had to save you…”

Rose pulled back instantly, furious. “Don’t you dare try an’ blame this on me!” she said, once again brandishing the tweezers like some sort of weapon. The Doctor eyed the metal instrument with a heightening sense of trepidation as she continued. He was more than a little worried that she might poke his eye out if she continued on in this fashion. “Maybe you should learn to actually tell me stuff – like, don’t pick flowers off the trees or they’ll all start blowing up in your face!”

“Maybe you should learn to keep your hands to yourself!” the Doctor countered furiously. “Didn’t your mum ever tell you to look with your eyes not your fingers? You’re just jeopardy friendly you are. Always gettin’ yourself into trouble...”

“Well you’re the one who invited me along,” Rose snapped. “Twice if I remember right. Are you gettin’ sick of me, is that it?”

There was a queasy silence and the Doctor dropped his eyes.

“No.”

“Then why don’t you stop bein’ an idiot and let me take this splinter out?” Rose said impatiently, but her expression was much softer. The Doctor gave her back his hand and she set to work again, this time employing the use of the safety pin as well. Silence fell as she carefully scraped at the surrounding skin, the Doctor wincing quietly every so often.

“Thanks.” she said presently.

“For what?” he returned automatically.

“For savin’ me from the exploding trees.” Rose said. She was studiously avoiding his gaze, over-concentrating on the fragment of wood in his palm. “I know I get in a lot of trouble an’…m’sorry that you always have to rescue me.”

“Not always.” the Doctor said absently and at Rose’s stare he elaborated , if awkwardly. “You’ve saved me your fair share of times too.”

Rose grinned, went as red as her namesake and returned busily to the task at hand.

“Anyway,” he continued gruffly, grimacing at a particularly painful swipe of the safety pin across his skin. “Used to saving people.”

“You’re makin’ me sound like some sor’ of damsel in distress,” Rose said distractedly, focusing hard on the scrape of her safety pin before lunging for the narrow end tweezers again.

“Well I’m no Prince Charming,” the Doctor said dryly just as Rose pulled back triumphantly.

“Done!” she exclaimed, holding up the offending fragment of wood on her fingertip before blowing it away with a puff of air. The Doctor ran a finger over his palm, delighted by just how much better it felt.

“Cheers for that.”

“You’re welcome.” Rose said, tongue suddenly between her teeth. “An’ who said you couldn’t be Prince Charming?”

The Doctor laughed. “With a face like this?”

“I like it,” Rose told him matter-of-factly. “Anyway – didn’t you ever see Beauty and the Beast?”

“Probably,” The Doctor shrugged it off, but then paused to recollect. “Actually, I went to see it when it premiered in London. You know I reckon that was the only time I’ve ever sat through a whole movie without something interrupting me right in the middle of the best bit?”

Rose rolled her eyes. “Doesn’t surprise me. Anyway, what I mean was that Belle fell in love with the Beast because of who he was inside...” at this she pressed a small hand over his left heart and smiled fondly at him. “Not how he looked.”

“Wise words that.” the Doctor said, taking her hand from his thudding heart and twining their fingers together briefly. “Don’t suppose you want to go see it? Premiere of Beauty and the Beast?”

“Won’t the universe like, implode or something if you cross your own timeline?” Rose wanted to know, her brow scrunching.

“Not if we go to a different movie theatre it won’t.” the Doctor grinned and pulled a laughing Rose to her feet. “Come on then. 9th of October, 1991. Premiere of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.”

“Y’know I never would’ve picked you as a Disney fan,” Rose teased as he began to circle the console, inputting coordinates.

The Doctor shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I be? Nice enough bloke.”

“Who?”

“Walt Disney.”

The Doctor counted the seconds it took before comprehension hit but it was well worth the wait when Rose’s mouth dropped open spectacularly. “No. Way.” she said, awestruck. “You _know_ Walt Disney?”

“Might’ve run into him once or twice,” the Doctor said and then grinned, hand resting on the brake. “Better hold on tight.”

Rose gripped the console with both hands and with a sharp flick of his wrist they were falling.


End file.
